“Echos Myron” by Guided by Voices

I’ve always imagined that the Myron of “Echos Myron” is the classical bronze sculptor, circa the 5th Century BC. Maybe it’s because the lyrics attach him to a bronzey simile:

“If it’s right you can tell” Echos Myron like a siren With endurance like the liberty bell

I can admit it’s a stretch, but a reference to Greek sculpture does lend something a bit epic to this song. “Echos Myron” is really about the pressures of success and the difficulty of living up to the hype that was heaped on GBV by the music press of the mid-90s. The nod to classical sculpture (if that really is what it’s nodding to), plus the liberty bell reference, plus all the other clever lines help make the song more about human failings in general and the struggle to create art that will last:

Tower to the skies An academy of lies And what goes up surely must come down And we felt the mighty blowout with the walls coming down Or something like that…

Men of wisdom And men of compromise Men of weak flesh in an armored disguise All fall down

What’s really great is that, besides the oblique lyrics and layered meanings, “Echos Myron” is just plain catchy—a lo-fi power-pop guilty pleasure you don’t have to feel guilty about. Our copy is on the Guided by Voices compilation Human Amusements at Hourly Rates, steal a quick listen below then come in and check it out.